HIGHLIGHTS

There were 95,758 primary 457 visa holders in Australia in September 2016.

Developer programmers were among the top three beneficiaries of the programme.

The announcement by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today to scrap its popular 457 work visa used by foreign nationals - mostly Indians - led to a lot of speculation among the aspirants. But immigration experts feel that this could be a temporary phase and the country, known as

The announcement by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today to scrap its popular 457 work visa used by foreign nationals - mostly Indians - led to a lot of speculation among the aspirants.

But immigration experts feel that this could be a temporary phase and the country, known as a nation of immigrants, may not go the US way which has tightened its popular H1-B visa norms mostly utilised by Indian IT professionals to work there.

The 457 visa programme allowed foreign nationals to work in Australia for up to four years in skilled jobs where workers were tough to find locally.

Raj Shekhar, proprietor of Tropical Education and Migration Consultants Ltd in Janakpuri is optimistic about the change in visa norms by the Turnbull government. "The 457 visa programme was being misused by agents to twist norms to push migrants in Australia who didn't deserve. It had become more of a scam there, so the government had to scrap it," Shekhar said.

"I am sure the new visa norms will help skilled visa seekers but for the time being uncertainty prevails. Hope this is just a temporary phase," he added.

DIFFERENT FROM CHANGES MADE BY TRUMP ADMINISTRATION?

A Noida-based IT professional Dheeraj Khanna, who worked as a project manager for a leading tech firm in Australia, believes it is more of a political decision. "This looks more like a political decision to me. One should not compare the changes made by the Trump administration in the US with those done by Australians," said Khanna.

At the moment there are enough skilled immigrants in Australia and they can manage with what they have, but they will certainly need IT professionals from countries like India and China.

"It took some time for me to understand what the changes were and the impact it would have on aspirants like me applying for the 457 work visa," said Upasana Kapoor.

"I am sure the new norms will shorten the queue for genuine applicants like me," she added.

According to the Australian Department of Immigration Data, there were 95,758 primary 457 visa holders in the country in September 2016. Developer programmers were among the top three beneficiaries of the visa programme. Bulk of the applicants in this category came from India with 26.6 per cent of the total applicants followed by United Kingdom and People's Republic of China.